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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,225 records · Page 68
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Strong Modulation of Spin Currents in Bilayer Graphene by Static and Fluctuating Proximity Exchange Fields

Two-dimensional materials provide a unique platform to explore the full potential of magnetic proximity-driven phenomena, which can be further used for applications in next-generation spintronic devices. Of particular interest is to understand and control spin currents in graphene by the magnetic exchange field of a nearby ferromagnetic material in graphene–ferromagnetic-insulator (FMI) heterostructures. Here, we present the experimental study showing the strong modulation of spin currents in graphene layers by controlling the direction of the exchange field due to FMI magnetization. Owing to clean interfaces, a strong magnetic exchange coupling leads to the experimental observation of complete spin modulation at low externally applied magnetic fields in short graphene channels. Additionally, we discover that the graphene spin current can be fully dephased by randomly fluctuating exchange fields. This is manifested as an unusually strong temperature dependence of the nonlocal spin signals in graphene, which is due to spin relaxation by thermally induced transverse fluctuations of the FMI magnetization.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Floquet topological systems with flat bands: Edge modes, Berry curvature, and orbital magnetization

Results are presented for Floquet systems in two spatial dimensions where the Floquet driving breaks an effective time reversal symmetry. The driving protocol also induces flat bands that correspond to anomalous Floquet phases where the Chern number is zero and yet chiral edge modes exist. Analytic expressions for the edge modes, Berry curvature, and the orbital magnetization are derived for the flat bands. Results are also presented for the static Haldane model for parameters when the bands are flat. Floquet driving of the same model is shown to give rise to Chern insulators as well as anomalous Floquet phases. As a result, the orbital magnetization for these different topological phases are presented and are found to be enhanced at half filling by the broken particle-hole symmetry of the Haldane model.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Growth, characterization, and Chern insulator state in MnBi 2⁢ Te 4 via the chemical vapor transport method

As the first intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator, MnBi 2 Te 4 has provided a platform to investigate the interplay of band topology and magnetism as well as the emergent phenomena arising from such an interplay. Here we report the chemical-vapor-transport (CVT) growth and characterization of MnBi 2 Te 4 , as well as the observation of the field-induced quantized Hall conductance in 6-layer devices. Through comparative studies between our CVT-grown and flux-grown MnBi 2 Te 4 via magnetic, transport, scanning tunneling microscopy, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements, we find that CVT-grown MnBi 2 Te 4 is marked with higher Mn occupancy on the Mn site, slightly higher Mn Bi antisites, smaller carrier concentration, and a Fermi level closer to the Dirac point. Furthermore, a 6-layer device made from the CVT-grown sample shows by far the highest mobility of 2500 cm 2 V s in MnBi 2 Te 4 devices with the quantized Hall conductance appearing at 1.8 K and 8 T. Furthermore, our study provides a route to obtain high-quality single crystals of MnBi 2 Te 4 that are promising to make superior devices and realize emergent phenomena, such as the layer Hall effect and quantized anomalous Hall effect, etc.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Experimental realization of linearly polarized x-ray detected ferromagnetic resonance

We present the first theoretical and experimental evidence of time-resolved dynamic x-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD) measurements of GHz magnetic precessions driven by ferromagnetic resonance in both metallic and insulating thin films. Our findings show a dynamic XMLD in both ferromagnetic Ni 80 Fe 20 and ferrimagnetic Ni 0.65 Zn 0.35 Al 0.8 Fe 1.2 O 4 for different measurement geometries and linear polarizations. A detailed analysis of the observed signals reveals the importance of separating different harmonic components in the dynamic signal in order to identify the XMLD response without the influence of competing contributions. In particular, RF magnetic resonance elicits a large dynamic XMLD response at the fundamental frequency under experimental geometries with oblique x-ray polarization. The geometric range and experimental sensitivity can be improved by isolating the 2ω Fourier component of the dynamic response. These results illustrate the potential of dynamic XMLD and represent a milestone accomplishment toward the study of GHz spin dynamics in systems beyond ferromagnetic order.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Absence of evidence for chiral Majorana modes in quantum anomalous Hall-superconductor devices

A quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator coupled to an s-wave superconductor is predicted to harbor chiral Majorana modes. A recent experiment interprets the half-quantized two-terminal conductance plateau as evidence for these modes in a millimeter-size QAH-niobium hybrid device. However, non-Majorana mechanisms can also generate similar signatures, especially in disordered samples. Here, we studied similar hybrid devices with a well-controlled and transparent interface between the superconductor and the QAH insulator. When the devices are in the QAH state with well-aligned magnetization, the two-terminal conductance is always half-quantized. Our experiment provides a comprehensive understanding of the superconducting proximity effect observed in QAH-superconductor hybrid devices and shows that the half-quantized conductance plateau is unlikely to be induced by chiral Majorana fermions in samples with a highly transparent interface.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2026

Leveraging the redox activities of cerium and dibenzotetrathiafulvalene to discover a photo-responsive magnetic material

Stimuli-responsive changes in lanthanide-based materials are a promising research direction. In this study, [DBTTF] 4 [Ce 2 Cl 10 ] DBTTF = dibenzotetrathiafulvalene (1) was synthesized by a light-induced crystallization, where photo-oxidation of DBTTF enables formation of the cerium dimer [Ce 2 Cl 10 ] 4− . Intermolecular interactions between the stacked organic units of the crystal result in charge transfer bands in the visible-NIR (near-infrared) region, evident in the solid-state absorption spectrum upon comparison with the solution spectrum. The assignments of the sublattice oxidation states were made with single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) structural characterization, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and magnetometry. Continuous 532 nm laser irradiation of the microcrystalline solid modulates the redox states in 1, leading to ∼40% reduction in the observed magnetization at 2 K. Density functional theory PBE+U/HSE06 band structure calculations predict Mott insulating behavior in 1, with a bandgap of 0.54/0.81 eV, and further support the conjecture that the observed photo-induced change in magnetization results from electron transfer from the [Ce 2 Cl 10 ] 4− anions to the π-stacked [DBTTF] 2 2+ organic dimer subunits. An enhancement in conductivity is similarly observed upon 532 nm irradiation, determined by single-crystal transport measurements. The findings reveal that photo-responsive lanthanide-based materials can be achieved by integration of redox-active organic moieties with redox-active lanthanide cations for the realization of switchable, photo-magnetic materials.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Experimental study of two-dimensional quantum Wigner solid in zero magnetic field

At temperatures T → 0, strongly interacting two-dimensional (2D) electron systems manifest characteristic insulating behaviors that are key for understanding the nature of the ground state in light of the interplay between disorder and electron-electron interaction. In contrast to the hopping conductance demonstrated in the insulating side of the metal-to-insulator transition, the ultra-high quality 2D systems exhibit nonactivated T-dependence of the conductivity even for dilute carrier concentrations down to 7×10{sup 8} cm{sup −2}. The apparent metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) occurs for a large r{sub s} value around 40 for which a Wigner Crystalllization is expected. The magnetoresistance for a series of carrier densities in the vicinity of the transition exhibits a characteristic sign change in weak perpendicular magnetic field. Within the Wigner Crystallization regime (with r{sub s} > 40), we report an experimental observation of a characteristic nonlinear threshold behavior from a high-resolution dc dynamical response as an evidence for aWigner crystallization in high-purity GaAs 2D hole systems in zero magnetic field. The system under an increasing current drive exhibits voltage oscillations with negative differential resistance. They confirm the coexistence of a moving crystal along with striped edge states as observed for electrons on helium surfaces. Moreover, the threshold is well below the typical classical levels due to a different pinning and depinning mechanism that is possibly related to quantum processes.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Re-entrance to a ferromagnetic insulator with oxygen-vacancy ordering in the La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 /SrTiO 3 superlattice

The charge-density wave is correlated with the properties in transition metal oxides, and regulating this state is important to explore the potential of oxides. Defects could modulate the local environment, in which the effect is subject to the concentration and arrangement, and an artificial arrangement of defect-ordering is highly expected to design the material properties. In this work, the ordering of oxygen vacancies with a preferred location on the (001) La/SrO plane by self-structural optimization was induced in La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 /SrTiO 3 superlattices with medium oxygen pressure during SrTiO 3 deposition, and then the ferromagnetic charge-ordering (CO)/charge-density-wave (CDW) state was formed in La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 with susceptibility to magnetic field, temperature, and superlattice configuration. In addition, re-entrance to the ferromagnetic insulator CO/CDW could be induced by a high magnetic field. The selective occupancy of oxygen vacancies on the (001) La/SrO plane and the phase fluctuation around the CO/CDW-to-ferromagnetic metal phase transition were critical to the above properties. The interfacial diffusion with atomic-level resolution to control oxygen vacancies could be used in other magnetoelectric systems and corresponding device applications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Spin-mediated Mott excitons

Motivated by recent experiments on Mott insulators, in both iridates and ultracold atoms, we theoretically study the effects of magnetic order on the Mott-Hubbard excitons. In particular, we focus on spin-mediated doublon-holon pairing in Hubbard materials. Here, we use several complementary theoretical techniques: Mean-field theory to describe the spin degrees of freedom, the self-consistent Born approximation to characterize individual charge excitations across the Hubbard gap, and the Bethe-Salpeter equation to identify bound states of doublons and holons. The binding energy of the Mott exciton is found to increase with increasing the Néel order parameter, whereas the exciton mass decreases. We observe that these trends rely significantly on the retardation of the effective interaction, and require consideration of multiple effects from changing the magnetic order. Our results are consistent with the key qualitative trends observed in recent experiments on iridates. Moreover, the findings could have direct implications on ultracold atom Mott insulators where the Hubbard model is the exact description of the system and the microscopic degrees of freedom can be directly accessed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2019

Non-Centrosymmetric Topological Superconductivity

We have pursued a joint experimental and theoretical effort to focus on understanding the topological superconducting state of the non-centrosymmetric half-Heusler family, with particular emphasis on the material YPtBi. We completed a thorough study of the palladium-based rare earth-bismuthide (RPdBi) half-Heusler family, synthesizing high-quality crystalline specimens and fully characterizing their normal, superconducting and magnetic states in an effort to reveal their potential for realizing the next generation of topological insulators and superconductors. We synthesized the series of heavy-R compounds, including Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm magnetic rare earths as well as Y and Lu non-magnetic elements. Electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements of the RPdBi series has been performed down to 20 mK temperatures, revealing an interesting progression of superconducting phase transitions that evolves with rare earth species. We have found that superconductivity exists in most of these compounds, with a maximum transition T c = 1.6 K found in the non-magnetic Y- and Lu-based compounds, and is systematically suppressed with increasing strength of magnetism from the magnetic rare earth species. Neutron scattering experiments have confirmed long-ranged antiferromagnetic order which presents a representative scan of magnetic peaks in DyPdBi (T N =3.5 K) and the AFM order parameter in TbPdBi (T N =4.9 K).

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Plasma/Wall interaction of an insulated material by laser-induced fluorescence diagnostic

We present Argon Ion Velocity Distribution Function (IVDF) in the vicinity of an insulated BNSiO{sub 2} ceramic and a glass plate in a non magnetized plasma by laser-induced fluorescence diagnostic. Results show the rather surprising self-consistent formation of a positive or inverse sheath in the two cases. The positive plasma potential repels ions from the insulated wall and is not explained by any sheath theory. Electron secondary emission of the ceramic can be a good candidate to explain these results. (authors)

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Measurements of the apparent thermal conductivity of multi-layer insulation between 20 K and 90 K

NASA has the need to efficiently store cryogenic propellants in space for long periods of time. One method to improve storage efficiency is to use multi-layer insulation (MLI), a technique that minimizes the boiling rate due to radiation heat transfer. Typically, the thermal performance of MLI is determined by measuring the rate of evaporation of liquid nitrogen from a calibrated cryostat. The main limitation with this method is that testing conditions are restricted by the boiling temperature of the LN{sub 2}, which may not match the requirements of the application. The Multi-Layer Insulation Thermal Conductivity Experiment (MIKE) at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is capable of measuring the effective thermal conductivity of MLI at variable boundary temperatures. MIKE uses cryo-refrigerators to control boundary temperatures in the calorimeter and a calibrated thermal link to measure the heat load. To make the measurements requested by NASA, MIKE needed to be recalibrated for the 20 K to 90 K range. Also, due to the expectation of a lower heat transfer rate, the heat load support rod material was changed to one with a lower thermal conductivity to ensure the temperature difference seen on the cold rod could be measurable at the estimated heat load. Presented are the alterations to MIKE including calibration data and heat load measurements on new load-bearing MLI supplied by NASA.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Ferromagnetism and topological surface states of manganese doped Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3}: Insights from density-functional calculations

Based on first-principles calculations, the electronic, magnetic, and topological characters of manganese (Mn) doped topological insulator Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3} were investigated. The Mn substitutionally doped Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3}, where Mn atoms tend to be uniformly distributed, was shown to be p-type ferromagnetic, arising from hole-mediated Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction. Mn doping leads to an intrinsic band splitting at Γ point, which is substantially different from that of nonmagnetic dopant. The topological surface state of Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3} is indeed gapped by Mn doping; however, the bulk conductance limits the appearance of an insulating state. Moreover, the n-type doping behavior of Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3} is derived from Mn entering into the van der Waals gap of Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3}.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Antiferromagnetic order competing with topological state in Ce{sub x}Bi{sub 2−x}Te{sub 3}

The topological surface states in three-dimensional topological insulators are easily tuned by chemical doping, especially by magnetic impurities. We prepared single crystals of Ce{sub x}Bi{sub 2−x}Te{sub 3} with various x (=0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.10, and 0.12). The obtained crystals were characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The magnetic susceptibility data revealed that the Ce atoms are well substituted for Bi into Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3}. From the Curie-Weiss fits, we observed that the effective magnetic moments μ{sub eff} are close to 2.54 μ{sub B} for free Ce ion, and the paramagnetic Curie-Weiss temperatures θ{sub p} are negatively increased from 2.87 K to −59.3 K with increasing x. The magnetization data clearly showed antiferromagnetic orders around T{sub N} = 4.1 K for x ≥ 0.08, where θ{sub p} suddenly increases, and the electrical resistivity is simply metallic and the magnetoresistance is parabolic. Only for x = 0.06, exotic physical properties arising from the topological states were observed such as non-metallic behavior in the electrical resistivity and linear dependence of the magnetoresistance. Moreover, the carrier concentration of x = 0.06 is one order lower than that of x ≥ 0.08. These observations propose that the antiferromagnetic order is strongly competing with the topological state in Ce{sub x}Bi{sub 2−x}Te{sub 3}.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

How magnetic field can transform a superconductor into a Bose metal

Abstract We discuss whether a simple theory of superconducting stripes coupled by Josephson tunneling can describe a metallic transport, once the coherent tunneling of pairs is suppressed by the magnetic field. For a clean system, the conclusion we reached is negative: the excitation spectrum of preformed pairs consists of Landau levels, and once the magnetic field exceeds a critical value, the transport becomes insulating. As a speculation, we suggest that a Bose metal can exist in disordered systems provided that the disorder is strong enough to localize some pairs. Then the coupling between propagating and localized pairs broadens the Landau levels, resulting in a metallic conductivity. Our model respects the particle–hole symmetry, which leads to a zero Hall response. And intriguingly, the resulting anomalous metallic state has no Drude peak and the spectral weight of the cyclotron resonance vanishes at low temperatures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Theory of tunneling between two-dimensional electron layers driven by spin pumping: Adiabatic regime and beyond

Tunneling spectroscopy between parallel two-dimensional (2D) electronic systems provides a powerful method to probe the underlying electronic properties by measuring tunneling conductance. Here, in this work, we present a theoretical framework for spin transport in 2D-to-2D tunneling systems, driven by spin pumping. This theory applies to a vertical heterostructure where two layers of metallic 2D electron systems are separated by an insulating barrier, with one layer exchange coupled to a magnetic layer driven at resonance. Utilizing a nonperturbative Floquet-Keldysh formalism, we derive general expressions for the tunneling spin and charge currents across a broad range of driving frequencies, extending beyond the traditional adiabatic pumping regime. At low frequencies, we obtain analytical results that recover the known behaviors in the adiabatic regime. However, at higher frequencies, our numerical findings reveal significant deviations in the dependence of spin and charge currents on both frequency and precession angle. This work offers fresh insights into the role of magnetization dynamics in tunneling transport, opening up new avenues for exploring nonadiabatic spin pumping phenomena.

Green's function methods↗
DOE OSTI2019

Surface states and Rashba-type spin polarization in antiferromagnetic MnBi 2 Te 4 (0001)

The layered van der Waals antiferromagnet MnBi 2 Te 4 has been predicted to combine the band ordering of archetypical topological insulators such as Bi 2 Te 3 with the magnetism of Mn, making this material a viable candidate for the realization of various magnetic topological states. We have systematically investigated the surface electronic structure of MnBi 2 Te 4 (0001) single crystals by use of spin- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy experiments. In line with theoretical predictions, the results reveal a surface state in the bulk band gap and they provide evidence for the influence of exchange interaction and spin-orbit coupling on the surface electronic structure.

Vidal, R. C.↗